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1.
Joshua Reynolds
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Sir Joshua Reynolds RA FRS FRSA was an influential eighteenth-century English painter, specialising in portraits. He promoted the Grand Style in painting which depended on idealization of the imperfect and he was a founder and first president of the Royal Academy of Arts, and was knighted by George III in 1769. Reynolds was born in Plympton, Devon, on 16 July 1723 the third son of the Rev. Samuel Reynolds and his father had been a fellow of Balliol College, Oxford, but did not send any of his sons to the university. One of his sisters was Mary Palmer, seven years his senior, author of Devonshire Dialogue, in 1740 she provided £60, half of the premium paid to Thomas Hudson the portrait-painter, for Joshuas pupilage, and nine years later advanced money for his expenses in Italy. His other siblings included Frances Reynolds and Elizabeth Johnson, as a boy, he came under the influence of Zachariah Mudge, whose Platonistic philosophy stayed with him all his life. The work that came to have the most influential impact on Reynolds was Jonathan Richardsons An Essay on the Theory of Painting, having shown an early interest in art, Reynolds was apprenticed in 1740 to the fashionable London portrait painter Thomas Hudson, who had been born in Devon. Hudson had a collection of old master drawings, including some by Guercino, although apprenticed to Hudson for four years, Reynolds only remained with him until summer 1743. Having left Hudson, Reynolds worked for some time as a portrait-painter in Plymouth Dock and he returned to London before the end of 1744, but following his fathers death in late 1745 he shared a house in Plymouth Dock with his sisters. In 1749, Reynolds met Commodore Augustus Keppel, who invited him to join HMS Centurion, of which he had command, while with the ship he visited Lisbon, Cadiz, Algiers, and Minorca. From Minorca he travelled to Livorno in Italy, and then to Rome, while in Rome he suffered a severe cold, which left him partially deaf, and, as a result, he began to carry a small ear trumpet with which he is often pictured. Reynolds travelled homeward overland via Florence, Bologna, Venice, and he was accompanied by Giuseppe Marchi, then aged about 17. Apart from a brief interlude in 1770, Marchi remained in Reynolds employment as an assistant for the rest of the artists career. Following his arrival in England in October 1752, Reynolds spent three months in Devon, before establishing himself in London, where he remained for the rest of his life. He took rooms in St Martins Lane, before moving to Great Newport Street and he achieved success rapidly, and was extremely prolific. In 1760 Reynolds moved into a house, with space to show his works and accommodate his assistants. Alongside ambitious full-length portraits, Reynolds painted large numbers of smaller works, in the late 1750s, at the height of the social season, he received five or six sitters a day, each for an hour. By 1761 Reynolds could command a fee of 80 guineas for a full-length portrait, the clothing of Reynolds sitters was usually painted either by one of his pupils, his studio assistant Giuseppe Marchi, or the specialist drapery painter Peter Toms. Lay figures were used to model the clothes and he had an excellent vantage from his house, Wick House, on Richmond Hill, and painted the view in about 1780

2.
Portrait of Omai
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Portrait of Omai is an oil-on-canvas portrait by English artist Sir Joshua Reynolds, completed c.1776. Omai was a Polynesian visitor to England in the 18th century, from the island of Raiatea, he left the Society Islands with Commander Tobias Furneaux on his ship HMS Adventure. Furneauxs ship had left England in 1772, accompanying Captain James Cook on his voyage of discovery in the Pacific. After visiting New Zealand, Omai arrived in England on Furneauxs ship in July 1774, Omai was admired by London society, staying with the President of the Royal Society Sir Joseph Banks and meeting King George III, Dr Samuel Johnson, Frances Burney, and other English celebrities. He returned to the Pacific with Cooks third voyage in July 1776 and he stayed behind after Cook left in November 1777, and Omai died there in late 1779. Reynolds portrayed Omai as a figure, in an idealised depiction echoing Jean-Jacques Rousseaus concept of a noble savage. He stands barefoot, alone in a rural Arcadian landscape with unusual palm-like trees and his adlocutio pose was inspired by the Apollo Belvedere, it emphasises the tattoos on his hands, but also makes classical allusions. The work measures 90 ×57 inches and it was painted in around 1775, and was one of 12 portraits exhibited by Reynolds at the Royal Academys eighth exhibition in 1776, to great acclaim. It was praised as a likeness of the subject. The other paintings exhibited by Reynolds in 1776 included a full portrait of Georgiana. A pencil preparatory sketch is held by the National Library of Australia as part of the Rex Nan Kivell Collection, the painting was reproduced as a mezzotint engraving by Johann Jacobé, published by John Boydell in 1780. Reynolds was not commissioned to paint Omais portrait, and the work remained in his studio until his death in 1792 and it was auctioned by Greenwoods in April 1796, and acquired by the art dealer Michael Bryan for 100 guineas. Bryan sold it to art collector Frederick Howard, 5th Earl of Carlisle and it was not seen again at a public exhibition until it appeared at the Royal Academy in 1954. The painting was included in the estate of George Howard, Baron Howard of Henderskelfe when he died in November 1984. It was put on sale by his son, Simon Howard, to meet the costs of a divorce, Howard offered to sell the work to the Tate Gallery, but its suggested price of £5.5 million was rejected. Auctioned at Sothebys in September 2001, the painting was bought by London art dealer Guy Morrison, the hammer price of £9.4 million was a record for a work by Reynolds and then the second highest amount paid for a painting by a British artist. The painting was acquired by Irish businessman John Magnier and he was refused an export licence while the Tate Gallery sought funding to make an offer to acquire the work. An anonymous donation allowed the gallery to make an offer of £12.5 million, but Magnier refused to sell, and in the meantime he refused to allow the painting to be displayed in public in the UK

3.
Mary Palmer
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Mary Palmer, née Mary Reynolds, was an author from Devon, England, who wrote Devonshire Dialogue, once considered the best piece of literature in the vernacular of Devon. She was a sister of the artist Sir Joshua Reynolds, Mary was the eldest daughter and third child of Samuel Reynolds, master of the Plympton Earl grammar school, Devonshire, by his wife, Theophila Potter. She was 7 years older than her brother Joshua Reynolds and her fondness for drawing is said to have influenced him when a boy. In 1740 she provided £60, half of the premium paid to Thomas Hudson the portrait-painter, for Joshuas pupilage, Sir Joshua Reynolds painted two portraits of his sister Mary, one made about 1747, the other when she was aged about 60 years of age. Both portraits descended to her great-grandson, George Stawell of Great Torrington and their other siblings included the artist Frances Reynolds and Elizabeth Johnson. Mary Palmer was the author of Devonshire Dialogue, considered by the Dictionary of National Biography in 1895 to be the best piece of literature in the vernacular of Devon and it gives an account of the customs, characters and dialect unique to western England. Written in the middle of the 18th century, it was shown to friends and extracts were published in periodicals during her lifetime, a portion appeared in 1837 with a glossary by her grandson James Frederick Palmer, son of John Palmer. A complete version was edited by her daughter Theophila Gwatkin in 1839, on 18 July 1740 Mary Reynolds married John Palmer of Great Torrington, Devonshire, who trained as a solicitor. In 1752 he built a house at Great Torrington now known as Palmer House, John and Mary Palmer had five children, two sons and three daughters, Joseph Palmer, Dean of Cashel, and author of A Four Months Tour in France. He resided at Beam House, Great Torrington, John Palmer, Honorary Canon of Lincoln Cathedral Mary II Palmer, who together with her sister Offy spent much time in London with their uncle, Sir Joshua Reynolds. He had great affection for them, painted their portraits, in 1792 she married Murrough OBrien, 5th Earl of Inchiquin, later 1st Marquis of Thomond. Mary died without issue in 1820 and left as her heir her brother John Palmer, Theophila Palmer married in 1781 Robert Lovell Gwatkin of Killiow, Cornwall. Life and times of Sir Joshua Reynolds, a Dialogue in the Devonshire Dialect by A Lady to which is added a Glossary London, Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green and Longman

4.
Royal Academy of Arts
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The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. The Royal Academy of Arts was founded through an act of King George III on 10 December 1768 with a mission to promote the arts of design in Britain through education and exhibition. Supporters wanted to foster a national school of art and to encourage appreciation, fashionable taste in 18th-century Britain was based on continental and traditional art forms, providing contemporary British artists little opportunity to sell their works. From 1746 the Foundling Hospital, through the efforts of William Hogarth, the success of this venture led to the formation of the Society of Artists of Great Britain and the Free Society of Artists. Both these groups were primarily exhibiting societies, their success was marred by internal factions among the artists. The combined vision of education and exhibition to establish a school of art set the Royal Academy apart from the other exhibiting societies. It provided the foundation upon which the Royal Academy came to dominate the art scene of the 18th and 19th centuries, supplanting the earlier art societies. Sir William Chambers, a prominent architect, used his connections with George III to gain royal patronage and financial support of the Academy, the painter Joshua Reynolds was made its first president. Francis Milner Newton was elected the first secretary, a post he held for two decades until his resignation in 1788, the instrument of foundation, signed by George III on 10 December 1768, named 34 founder members and allowed for a total membership of 40. William Hoare and Johann Zoffany were added to this list later by the King and are known as nominated members, among the founder members were two women, a father and daughter, and two sets of brothers. The Royal Academy was initially housed in cramped quarters in Pall Mall, although in 1771 it was given temporary accommodation for its library and schools in Old Somerset House, then a royal palace. In 1780 it was installed in purpose-built apartments in the first completed wing of New Somerset House, located in the Strand and designed by Chambers, the Academy moved in 1837 to Trafalgar Square, where it occupied the east wing of the recently completed National Gallery. These premises soon proved too small to house both institutions, in 1868,100 years after the Academys foundation, it moved to Burlington House, Piccadilly, where it remains. Burlington House is owned by the British Government, and used rent-free by the Royal Academy, the first Royal Academy exhibition of contemporary art, open to all artists, opened on 25 April 1769 and ran until 27 May 1769. 136 works of art were shown and this exhibition, now known as the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, has been staged annually without interruption to the present day. In 1870 the Academy expanded its programme to include a temporary annual loan exhibition of Old Masters. The range and frequency of these exhibitions have grown enormously since that time. Britains first public lectures on art were staged by the Royal Academy, led by Reynolds, the first president, a program included lectures by Dr. William Hunter, John Flaxman, James Barry, Sir John Soane, and J. M. W. Turner

5.
Lady Cockburn and Her Three Eldest Sons
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Lady Cockburn and Her Three Eldest Sons is an oil on canvas portrait by Joshua Reynolds. The painting passed to Mister Cockburns son George, and then to his daughter, Mister Hamilton and it was bequeathed to Londons National Gallery in 1906. The painting is one of the few signed by Reynolds, Lady Cockburns dress bears his signature, Lady Cockburn was the daughter of Francis Ayscough and his wife Anne. She married Sir James Cockburn the 8th Baronet and became Lady Cockburn of Langton in Berwick in 1769, the money was raised on her fathers estate and included three houses in London and two farms. Lady Cockburns first three sons are depicted in the portrait, the first son, James, became the 9th baronet and Governor of Bermuda, and her second son, George became an Admiral of the Fleet and the 10th Baronet. Lady Cockburns daughter, Augusta, was wed in 1807

6.
Grand manner
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Grand Manner refers to an idealized aesthetic style derived from classical art, and the modern classic art of the High Renaissance. In the eighteenth century, British artists and connoisseurs used the term to describe paintings that incorporated visual metaphors in order to suggest noble qualities, paul in particular, we are told by himself, that his bodily presence was mean. Alexander is said to have been of a low stature, a painter ought not so to represent him, agesilaus was low, lame, and of a mean appearance. None of these defects ought to appear in a piece of which he is the hero, in conformity to custom, I call this part of the art history painting, it ought to be called poetical, as in reality it is. In the late nineteenth century the rhetoric of the Grand Manner was adopted not only by the nouveaux riches, when especially ostentatious in presentation, typically in full-length works, this has also been referred to as the swagger portrait. Grand style, a concept in rhetoric National Gallery of Art Tate glossary

7.
The Club (dining club)
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The Club or Literary Club is a London dining club founded in February 1764 by the artist Joshua Reynolds and essayist Samuel Johnson. Initially, the club would meet one evening per week at seven, at the Turks Head Inn in Gerrard Street, later, meetings were reduced to once per fortnight whilst Parliament was in session, and were held at rooms in St Jamess Street. Though the initial suggestion was Reynolds, it is Johnson whose name is most closely associated with the Club, John Timbs, in his Club Life in London, gives an account of the Clubs centennial dinner in 1864, which was celebrated at the Clarendon hotel. Henry Hart Milman, the English historian, was treasurer, the Clubs toast, no doubt employing a bit of wishful thinking, was Esto perpetua, Latin for Let it be perpetual. The introduction of the phrase to Britain was probably through Sir Joshua Reynolds who went to Italy for his training in Renaissance art. The nine original members were, Hereafter membership was by unanimous election only, existing members would submit a black ball if a nominee was disfavored. Shortly following the establishment of the nine, Samuel Dyer became the first elected member. Hawkins left in 1768, suffering ostracism for his abuse of Burke. Membership was then increased to 12, the new seats were filled by barrister Robert Chambers, a membership of 12 was deemed optimal to retain a qualitative exclusivity. The Club grew to 16 members in 1773, then to 21 in late 1775, by 1791, the membership recorded by James Boswell included, The historian Henry Reeve recorded details of Club membership in his diaries. Members in the 1800s included, By 1881, the members of the club included John Tyndall, Sir Frederic Leighton, and Lord Houghton, with Henry Reeve serving as treasurer. Other prominent 19th century members included Lord Macaulay, Thomas Huxley, Lord Acton, Lord Dufferin, W. H. E. Lecky, winston Churchill and F. E. Smith had both desired to join The Club but were considered too controversial. In response, in 1911, they founded The Other Club, meanwhile, the Club is known to have survived at least as late as 1969. Life of Johnson, James Boswell,1791 The life and selections from the correspondence of William Whewell, Janet Mary Douglas,1881 Inns and Taverns of Old London, cited as Sambrook, ODNB Old and New London, Volume 3 at British History Online

8.
Colonel Acland and Lord Sydney: The Archers
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Colonel Acland and Lord Sydney, The Archers is an oil-on-canvas painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds undertaken between 1769 and 1770. The artwork depicts the two aristocrats Colonel John Dyke Acland and Lord Sydney, a diplomat, Reynolds began the work in 1769, and completed it the next year. In 1769 Reynolds had become the first president of the new Royal Academy, in September 2005, the Tate Gallery purchased the painting for more than £2.5 million, equivalent to US$4.4 million. The work portrays the two men holding each a bow, while the shotgun was the popular choice of weapon at the time. These two bow-wielding men can be seen in the clearing of a forest and they are both garbed in archer clothing, their hunted prey lies close to their feet. Their facial expressions, coupled with Cosbys eagerness and poise, suggest that they are preparing to loose an arrow at an approaching animal. Distantly in the background, a river, a clump of trees, further back, at the skyline mountain peaks can be seen below thick grey clouds. The portrait shares the same textural schemes and design of other works by Reynolds. The allusion to the era is apparent in both the clothing worn by the two aristocrats, and their choice of weapon. The Art Fund Tate Collection Sir Joshua Reynolds

9.
Lady Caroline Howard
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Lady Caroline Howard is an oil on canvas portrait by Joshua Reynolds. Lady Caroline was the daughter of Frederick Howard, 5th Earl of Carlisle and she was a spirited child, according to her father, and was seven years old when she sat to Reynolds. The portrait was commissioned by the Earl, and exhibited in 1779 at the Royal Academy before it was hung in Castle Howard. The NGA writes Reynolds has captured some of Lady Carolines complexity in the serious, intent expression of her face, her averted gaze. The painting is broadly and fluidly executed in thick, opaque layers, national Gallery of Art acquired the portrait in 1937

10.
Captain George K. H. Coussmaker
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Captain George K. H. Coussmaker is an oil on canvas portrait by Joshua Reynolds. Coussmaker was born in London in 1759 to Evert and Mary Coussmaker and he was promoted several times but never saw active service and retired in 1795. He married Catherine Southwell in 1790 and fathered two children, George and Sophia, Coussmaker sat for Reynolds 21 times and his horse 8 times between February 9 and April 16,1782 - an exceptional number of times. Reynolds was paid 205 pounds, plus 10 guineas for the frame, the portrait remained with Coussmaker and his descendants until 1884 when it was sold to William K. Vanderbilt and bequeathed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1920. Museum curators describe the picture as a fine work. The composition is complex and the whole vigorously painted, the Met, Captain George K. H. Coussmaker

The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. It has a unique …

Image: Burlington House

A 19th century illustration of the Royal Academy

Satirical drawing of Sir William Chambers, one of the founders, trying to slay the 8-headed hydra of the Incorporated Society of Artists

Study for Henry Singleton's painting The Royal Academicians assembled in their council chamber to adjudge the Medals to the successful students in Painting, Sculpture, Architecture and Drawing, which hangs in the Royal Academy. Ca. 1793.